Accreditation and Standards

New Edition of In Service to Iowa, Public Library Standards

In Service to Iowa, 6th edition - The manual for The State Library's Standards and Accreditation Program. It documents the condition of public library service in Iowa, determines the formula for State Aid funding, and meets statutory requirements.

The link above and image at right opens the the electronic PDF version of the manual. In Service to Iowa is no longer printed in paper format. It is available as a PDF only. This document may be updated on a frequent basis, and was updated on 10/25/2018. Please discard all previous drafts or editions.

Accreditation Application forms for next year (FY20) are now available. Due Date 2/28/2019.

All libraries with Accreditation or Tier Level expiration dates of June 30, 2019 will need to reapply this year. The applications are due February 28, 2019. New statuses will begin on July 1, 2019.

Online Application FormAll applications must be submitted using the online form. We will send out user names and passwords to all libraries needing to apply. NOTE: The online application form will be using the old Bibliostat software. The upgraded software is not ready to go yet.

Print Application Form - FY20Use the print application form as an offline aid only. All applications must be filed using the online form listed above.

Background

The State Library documents the condition of public library service in Iowa (Code of Iowa (256.51 (k)) by requiring public libraries to submit accreditation reports.

Iowa’s public library accreditation program has been in place since 1986 based on In Service to Iowa: Public Library Measure of Quality, 1985. The library community revised In Service to Iowa: Public Library Measures of Quality in 1989, 1997, 2004 and 2010. A new revised 6th edition called In Service to Iowa: Public Library Standards was released in August of 2016.